Natural Body Odor Remedies

Can body odor be controlled with a simple hygiene?

Chronic, persistent, hard-to-treat body odor can becomes overpowering to the person suffering it and interfere with the activities of daily life.

The bodily excretion most associated with natural body odor is sweat. In adults, there are two types of sweat glands, eccrine and apocrine. The eccrine glands appear all over the body and produce perspiration to keep the body cool. The apocrine glands have no role in regulating body temperature, but they produce odors and pheromones that are particular to the individual. Concentrated under the arms, near the genitals and breasts, and also around the eyes and ears, these produce a small amount of oily fluid. The fluid is odorless when it reaches the skin surface, but bacteria can decompose it to become potently odoriferous. Apocrine sweat contains complex chemical markers based on the activity of the immune system.                                                        

Not everyone reacts to other people's body odor the same way. Scientists have found that some ethnic groups find bacterially degraded sweat from people who have the same basic immune system markers inoffensive, while they find bacterially degraded sweat from people who have different immune system markers very unpleasant. Other ethnic groups react to bacterial decay, not the individual immune system markers. In general, people with ancestors from Europe tend to disregard body odors from genetically similar individuals, while people with ancestors from Asia tend to be sensitive to the odor itself, not the genetic markers.      

One research study found that people who are anxious about their body odor give visual cues that cause people to turn away. Men were asked to rate the effectiveness of their deodorants, and then their pictures were taken. When women were shown the photographs-with no possibility of sensing any body odor-the men who were most concerned about their smell were rated as the least visually attractive.¹ Women who are on the contraceptive Pill, incidentally, are less responsive to body odor in men. Sensitivity to body odor also varies by sex and gender orientation.²

When Body Odor Is a Serious Medical Condition

There are times when body odor is an early symptom of a serious metabolic disorder. These particular body odors, when they cannot be traced to an outside cause, call for medical care:

• The smell of rotten eggs on the breath and in the urine is a sign of liver failure.
• The smell of urine even after bathing is a sign of kidney failure.
• A garlicky smell on the breath without eating garlic is a sign of selenium poisoning.
• A smell on the breath or skin like fingernail polish remover (acetone) is a sign of dangerously high blood sugars.
• And smelling fishy is a sign of a metabolic disorder that prevents the normal processing of protein.³

READ How to Stop Excessive Sweating Odor?

Natural Remedies for Body Odor

For 99.9 percent of people, however, body odor is a simple matter of bacteria decay of compounds in sweat. Most people in North America deal with body odor by washing and applying deodorant. Here are some suggestions for taking care of this aspect of personal hygiene with a minimum of chemicals and at a minimal expense:

1. Wash intimate areas of your body with soap. Washing with water alone helps, but soap dissolves the oils released by the apocrine glands that can decay and emit particularly strong body odors. A deodorant soap or antiseptic soap is not necessary unless you have very strong, very persistent body odor due to a very high concentration of bacteria.⁴

2. Wash your clothes after one wearing. Bacteria living in the sweat from both accrine and epocrine glands can penetrate the fibers of your clothes and cause them to wear and decay. If you sweat a lot, wear cotton or linen to increase air circulation that dries your skin and slows the growth of bacteria.

3. Try a deodorant, which kills bacteria waiting to feed on sweat and replaces body odor with a more acceptable scent, or an antiperspirant, which stops sweat from ever occurring. If you are sensitive to deodorants and antiperspirants, baking soda may also help. Talcum powder is associated with ovarian cysts and ovarian cancer, so women should avoid it.

4. Be careful with your diet. Hot peppers trigger a perspiration reflex that makes the eater feel cooler (at least around the eyes and ears, if not on the tongue) after eating them. These odor-producing areas of the body are not treated with deodorants and antiperspirants, and can produce body odor when there is excessive consumption of chiles. Onions, garlic, beer, and spices also produce odor-causing substances that can be eliminated from your body through your skin.

5. As much as possible, relax. Excitement, anger, and anxiety increase perspiration, which in turn provides more food for the bacteria living on the surface of the skin.

6. For foot odor, consider tea tree oil. This Australian herbal preparation kills the bacteria that cause foot odor and athlete's foot. Be sure to dry between the toes after showering or taking a bath, and allow shoes to air out at least overnight between uses. Wear absorbent socks and change them frequently, and try to buy shoes that "breathe."

The other everyday source of body odor is halitosis. When bad breath seems to develop overnight and it cannot be traced to eating garlic, onions, pungent spices, or stinky cheese, the underlying cause may be bacterial. Sugar feeds the bacteria that cause halitosis. Avoid sugary foods, or if you must eat them, rinse your mouth after eating and brush your teeth as soon as possible. When halitosis is associated with the use of chewing tobacco or smoking, chewing chlorophyll (green) gums will help mask the offending chemicals.

Kitchen remedies for body odor abound. A splash of vinegar on the most highly odorous areas of the body (be careful to avoid applying vinegar to broken or inflamed skin) can lower pH so that bacteria cannot multiply. Essential oils of rosemary and/or sage can be mixed a cup (240 ml) of water to 10 drops (1-2 ml) of oil and then applied topically to odor-plagued feet. Drinking 2 cups (approximately 500 ml) of wheatgrass juice every day provides enough chlorophyll to result in drastic reduction of body odor associated with digestive disturbances.

Taking care of body odor can keep you from announcing your presence to people near and far. It can increase your self-confidence around the opposite sex. By following these simple suggestions, you can breathe in the sweet smell of success eliminating the odors of bromhidrosis and halitosis.